Van wie was Natalie Clifford Barney?

Natalie Clifford Barney (Dayton, Ohio, 31 oktober 1876 – Parijs, 2 februari 1972) was een Amerikaanse toneelschrijfster, dichteres en romanschrijfster die als expatriate leefde in Parijs. Ze was de dochter van kunstschilderes Alice Pike Barney.

Barneys salon werd jarenlang door haar moeder gehouden bij haar thuis aan de Rive Gauche; hier kwamen schrijvers en kunstenaars vanuit de hele wereld bijeen, waaronder belangrijke mensen uit de Franse literatuur, en ook Amerikaanse en Britse modernisten van de Lost Generation ("verloren generatie"). Ze bevorderde ook het werk van schrijvende vrouwen en vormde een 'vrouwen academie' als antwoord op de Franse 'mannen academie', terwijl ze ook schrijvers als Remy de Gourmont en Truman Capote steunde en inspireerde.

Ze was openlijk lesbisch en begon in 1900 met het uitgeven van liefdesgedichten aan vrouwen onder haar eigen naam; ze zag schandalen "als beste manier om van last af te komen". In haar werken steunde ze feminisme en pacifisme. Ze was tegen monogamie en had vele overlappende lange en korte relaties, waaronder met Élisabeth de Gramont (1875-1954), dichteres Olive Eleanor Custance (1874-1944), dichteres Renée Vivien en danser Armen Ohanian; ook had ze vijftig jaar lang een relatie met schilderes Romaine Brooks. Haar leven en liefdesaffaires dienden als inspiratie voor vele romans, variërend van de Franse bestseller Sapphic Idyll (over haar relatie met de courtisane Liane de Pougy) tot The Well of Loneliness. Barney was aantoonbaar de beroemdste lesbische schrijfster van de 20e eeuw.

Romaine Brooks (born Beatrice Romaine Goddard; May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970) was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued tonal palette keyed to the color gray. Brooks ignored contemporary artistic trends such as Cubism and Fauvism, drawing on her own original aesthetic inspired by the works of Charles Conder, Walter Sickert, and James McNeill Whistler. Her subjects ranged from anonymous models to titled aristocrats. She is best known for her images of women in androgynous or masculine dress, including her self-portrait of 1923, which is her most widely reproduced work.

Although her family was wealthy, Brooks had an unhappy childhood after her alcoholic father abandoned the family; her mother was emotionally abusive and her brother mentally ill. By her own account, her childhood cast a shadow over her whole life. She spent several years in Italy and France as a poor art student, then inherited a fortune upon her mother's death in 1902. Wealth gave her the freedom to choose her own subjects. She often painted people close to her, such as the Italian writer and politician Gabriele D'Annunzio, the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein, and her partner of more than 50 years, the writer Natalie Barney.

Although she lived until 1970, it is erroneously believed that she painted very little after 1925 despite evidence to the contrary. She made a series of drawings during the 1930s, using an "unpremeditated" techniques predating automatic drawing. She spent time in New York City in the mid 1930s, completing portraits of Carl Van Vechten and Muriel Draper. Many of her works are unaccounted for, but photographic reproductions attest to her ongoing artwork. It is thought to have culminated in her 1961 portrait of Duke Uberto Strozzi.